This way, the fish will not establish a territory and fight each other. Since red zebra cichlids are highly territorial fish, you should change the rock work once a month to reduce aggression. When the female fish is ready to breed, you can see her chasing other female fish away from her territory.Only feed your cichlids high-quality food such as frozen brine shrimp and blood worms.Males grow larger than their female counterparts. Size You can differentiate between full-size males and females by their size. In order to breed these fish and witness this behavior, ensure you have a male and a female. Females incubate the eggs and carry their young around in their mouths. So, remove any other fish from the tank and only put the breeder fish and their mates in the tank. Red zebra cichlids are mouth-brooding mbuna cichlids. When the male fish builds a nest in his territory, he might become aggressive towards other fish.Having more female fish with only one male fish in the tank can increase your chances of breeding. Provide plenty of rocks and caves for them to spawn.They have high ecological requirements, so you must provide the right water conditions to breed them.A 10g tank is suitable for about 5 to 10 fry. When you separate the fry from their mother, they must be put in a tank with no other fish. Once the fry has developed and is ready to leave their mother’s mouth, you can feed the fry with baby brine shrimp and crushed flakes. So, when the female is pregnant, it might be hard to distinguish them from non-pregnant females.

They usually have a muscular body like any other Mbuna species. Identify pregnant red zebra cichlid and red zebra cichlid pregnancy stages They might have one to three egg spots on their anus fin, which can be seen in both strains. The adult females are typically yellow, orange, or orange with dark markings. “albino” strain- Albino color throughout the body, but this color morph is rare.The minimum recommended tank size is 25 gallons, but they would really thrive in a 50-gallon tank. Juvenile males look like females, and they develop a light blue shade when they reach about 2.5 inches. How Many Gallons Do Demasoni Cichlids Need Demasoni cichlids are pretty small, clocking in at just 3 inches. “red-red” strain- Adult males, are orange/red with no vertical bars.Juvenile males are dark brown, and juvenile females are pale pink. “red-blue” strain- Adult males are light blue with faint vertical bars and 4 to 7 blotches in the anal fin.There are mainly three main color morphs in male fish. The coloration of male and female cichlids is very distinct. The redness will spread, there may be fuzzy white growth and the fish will become lethargic.ĭefinitely want to keep a close watch on this one.Red zebra cichlid male or female identification If the gill color is a parasite or disease then you'll soon start to notice more symptoms. So sorry, it's unclear what's going on here. Sometimes Fish '2' will allow fish '1' to come out to eat, but not always. If you look long enough what you'll notice is that as soon as fish '1' starts to swim away from it's place fish '2' will stop what its doing and turn, maybe only slightly, towards it and the fish '1' will immediately turn back to its spot. It may seem like none of the other fish are causing it but keep watching. Often with this sort of aggression what you'll see is one fish, call it fish '1', hanging at the top, or hiding behind something. Could be illness, could be aggression from another fish.

Is the fish eating? Is the fish flashing/scratching? Gasping? Does it swim around at all or pretty much stay in the corner?Ī new fish may tend to hide a little for a few days but generally speaking it is usually an indication that something is wrong. I really can't tell from the pictures whether this redness is something more than that or not. Red Zebras do have a reddish tinge around their gills as part of their natural coloring.